calends pl (plural only)
Often with initial capital: the first day of a month
Synonyms: Kal., first calends (rare)
(historical, Ancient Rome) the first day of a month of the Roman calendar.
(by extension) A day for settling debts and other accounts.
(by extension, biblical, Judaism, obsolete) synonym of Rosh Hodesh
(rare) synonym of calendar; (figuratively) an account, a record.
(figuratively, obsolete) The first day of something; a beginning.
English use of the Roman calendrical term always employs the Romans’ inclusive dating, including the calends itself when counting. Thus, the “third day before the calends of January” (a.d. iii Kal. Ian.) is 30 December: two days before 1 January, not three.
English usage also often follows the Latin contraction of the phrasing, which omits the words ante diem. The 30th of December may appear as the “third calends of January” or the “third of the calends of January”. Thus, the “second calends” (pridie kalendas) of a month is the last day of the month before it; the “third calends” (tertia kalendas) is the day before that; and so on. Because Julius Caesar did not want to move the religious holidays set by nones and ides of the months, he inserted all the additional days of his calendar reform in various places before the calends of the months. The Roman leap day was similarly intercalated as a “second sixth calends” on 25 February in order to avoid affecting the existing holidays of that month.
The variant spelling kalends is more common in modern classical scholarship, reflecting the Roman preference for that spelling.
• ides
• nones
calends
(obsolete, rare) plural of calend
• candles, slanced
Source: Wiktionary
Cal"ends, n. pl. Etym: [OE. kalendes month, calends, AS. calend month, fr. L. calendae; akin to calare to call, proclaim, Gr. Claim.]
Definition: The first day of each month in the ancient Roman calendar. [Written also kalends.] The Greek calends, a time that will never come, as the Greeks had no calends.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
9 May 2025
(noun) anything in accord with principles of justice; “he feels he is in the right”; “the rightfulness of his claim”
Coffee dates back to the 9th century. Goat herders in Ethiopia noticed their goats seem to be “dancing” after eating berries from a particular shrub. They reported it to the local monastery, and a monk made a drink out of it. The monk found out he felt energized and kept him awake at night. That’s how the first coffee drink was born.
